The Metals Subcommittee of the Science Advisory Board's Environmental Health Committee completed its review of the Drinking Water Health Criteria Document for Barium dated December 1987. The Subcommittee was asked to review the Environmental Protection Agency's standard 4.7 mg/L which was the standard recommended by the National Academy of Sciences in 1982. The Subcommittee concluded that any value for the drinking water standard in the range of 1 to 5 mg/L was consistent with the scientific evidence. The Subcommittee observed that it was unclear how the National Academy derived its value and the Subcommittee recommended that Environmental Protection Agency use its own data base to develop a standard. The Subcommittee further observed that expressing a standard to significant figure gives a false impression and precision and recommended that a standard be given to one significant figure.